MAN CHARGED WITH SEX ABUSE

Newsday

Keon Easterling, a 19 year old Roosevelt man who is mentally retarded, has been charged with twocounts of first-degree sexual abuse following allegations that he fondled two boys in the bathroomof a Hempstead church in December. According to police, Easterling, a parishioner of Faith BaptistChurch, followed two boys who are between the ages of 4 and 10, to the church's downstairsbathrooms on or about December 30, 2001. He touched the boys' genital areas through their outerclothing, said Det. Lt. Kevin Smith, a Nassau County Police spokesman. The man's grandmother deniesthe accusations saying that he was accompanied by her or at work on the day the alleged abuse tookplace and that it is a case of misidentification.

(New York)